The Accidental Mother Read Online Free PDF

into assisted living. There’s a place that came up just before Christmas, and she has to take it now or she’ll lose it. And even if she could cope with the girls, you can’t take children there. She feels awful about it, as you can imagine—but to be honest, I think the girls would be better off somewhere that wasn’t so…gloomy.” Sophie tried to take in everything that Tess was telling her.
    “Carrie had a lot of family,” Sophie said. “No brothers or sister admittedly, but tons of cousins—she was Catholic!”
    “Yes, well. Most of them have moved away or have families of their own. There’s no one willing to take the kids on. And besides”—Tess looked at Sophie with renewed determination—“Carrie named you. You agreed to it. Surely you must have thought about what it would mean when you agreed to be guardian?”
    Suddenly Sophie felt the walls of her office close in on her, and the air seemed to leak out of the room. She stood up abruptly. “I have to go, Miss Andrew,” she said. “I have a lunch.”
    Tess stood up too. “Lunch?” she said, looking bewildered. “Lunch can wait, can’t it? Look, I know it’s a lot to take in, a lot to ask—But Carrie must have thought she could ask it of you or she wouldn’t have put you in her will. And we’re thinking of what’s best for the girls in the short term. There aren’t very many options, Sophie. Until Carrie’s will was found, there was only one—foster care or a home until we could find their dad. We’re not asking you to keep them forever; we’re asking you to have them until then. On a short-term basis.”
    Sophie stopped by the door. “Short-term basis?” she repeated the three words as a question.
    “As you pointed out, the girls do have a father. We’re looking for him, and I’m sure that when he knows what has happened, he’ll want to come back and look after them. It would just be until we find Louis Gregory and let him know what’s happened.” Tess coughed into her hand as she finished the sentence.
    Sophie thought for a moment about two bereaved children she hardly knew living in her flat. There were a lot of things that Sophie was very good at. Pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box, making lists about lists, and devising pie charts. She was extremely good at pie charts. But she’d always said that when she discovered her limitations, she’d be happy to admit them. That time had come.
    “I’m sorry, Tess,” she said. “I really am. But I don’t know anything about children. I hardly even know Bella and Isobel. It would be wrong of me to say yes. Wrong for them. They need someone who knows how to help them.”
    Tess’s face remained impassive. “Perhaps you’re right, Sophie, in an ideal world that would be best. But do you know how many children need foster care in London tonight? Hundreds. Do you know how many foster parents we have? Nowhere near enough. Look, if they don’t go to you, I have no choice but to place them under a care order. They’ll be going to a home, if not tonight then tomorrow at the latest. They will stay in a local authority home until a foster place comes up or their dad comes back. They try their best at the homes, but trust me, they are always a last, last resort. It could be weeks, months until we find a foster home. I might even have to put them in separate homes.” Tess looked intently at Sophie. “If you agreed to take them, you wouldn’t be on your own. I’d be able to apply for a supervision order, and I’d be assigned to you as your support worker, with you all the way. They are missing their mum, Sophie. If they could be with someone familiar, it would really help them. Please, please, at least take a moment to think about it. You are their only hope right now.”
    Sophie hesitated for a moment. She thought of the day her dad had died. After her headmistress had sent her home, Carrie must have seen her out the classroom window, stumbling across the playing field